In the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 uprising at the US Capitol, Democrats weren’t the only ones who used the shocking events as a pretense to go after their top political opponents.
Even as they cracked down on their own conservative users, leading social-media sites notoriously colluded to de-platform one of their top right-wing rivals, Parler.
The app was one of the top downloads after Twitter permanently banned then-President Donald Trump and other top conservatives.
Its success, in turn, prompted both Google and Apple to ban Parler from their app stores. Amazon quickly raised the stakes by booting the site—likely in violation of contractual obligations—from its web-hosting services.
But on Monday, more than five weeks after the Left’s brazen attempt to destroy it, Parler made its triumphant return online.
The company secured new computer servers, according to conservative site Just the News.
The report, wisely, did not broadcast what the new hosting platform was, although there is little doubt that it, too, may soon come under siege.
But interim CEO Mark Meckler tried to reassure Parler’s 20 million users that it had resolved the issues.
“We are off of the big tech platform, so that we can consider ourselves safe and secure for the future,” Meckler told Just the News.
He said that new users should be able to sign up within a week or so.
Parler faced specious accusations that it had played a large role in helping extremists coordinate the premeditated violence that occurred during the Capitol protest.
But reports have since shown that Facebook—one of the censorship ringleaders—was the preferred platform for both right- and left-wing radicals who were involved in the siege.
More likely, Parler came under fire as a logical springboard for Trump, who may have been in negotiations to become an investing partner while terrified leftist forces scrambled to clamp down on any further uprisings that might de-legitimize the incoming Biden administration.
In an unprecedented show of force, some 25,000 National Guardsmen were mobilized to Washington, DC, for Biden’s inauguration, with many still expected to remain sentry there for weeks to come.
As was always the case since the app hit the mainstream in mid-2020, Parler will continue to rely on a combination of artificial intelligence and human reporting to police its user-generated content.
But Meckler said that it will remain true to its roots as a free-speech, no-censorship alternative to authoritarian social-media publishers like Facebook and Twitter.
Meckler, who replaced fouding CEO John Matze after internal disputes led to the latter’s dismissal, has the bona fides to back it up.
He has taken a lead role in creating two prominent conservative grassroots organizations, the Tea Party Patriots and the Convention of States.
Dan Bongino, a Fox News contributor and web publisher in his own right, has also become a prominent public face for the company in Matze’s absence.
Bongino was an early investor in the company and now sits on its three-person board of directors. He was the first to return to the site after it went live again on Monday.
However, Andrew Torba, founder and CEO of Gab, which is currently Parler’s chief competitors in the conservative social-media market, suggested in a backhanded congratulatory message that Parler was, in fact, the preferred platform of Establishment-friendly RINOs.
He suggested that founder and lead investor Rebekah Mercer, the daughter of billionaire hedge-fund investor Robert Mercer, may not be fully committed to the spirit of the increasingly populist conservative movement.
“Now the Mercers and their billion dollars combined with the entire establishment right grift machine can compete against grassroots Gab and The People on an even tech playing field,” Torba posted in a message on his own site.
Although deeply influential within the Republican establishment, the Mercer family has been a major source of funding for Trumpist causes including the Brexit effort, Breitbart News, Club for Growth and the Make America Number One PAC.
